#um… anyway Noir has like. kind of a kill switch which at first helps them when they’re in a sticky situation or whatever

[prettycoolducks]

“I’m just glad you’re back, partner”

[breeeliss]

[Miraculous Ladybug]: It’s All Hype!

lol i’ve stopped being anxious about these prompts being late, they’ll happen eventually

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[Day 4: Common Interests]

Link to Archive of Our Own: [AO3]

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Title: It’s All Hype! Pairings: Ladynoir (Ladybug x Chat Noir), Adrienette (Adrien x Marinette) Summary: Alya accidentally gets the Internet in a frenzy after announcing that Ladybug and Chat Noir are dating, but the two heroes are adamant about correcting the error and making sure the world knows that they’re just friends. So Alya proposes a staged public break up to set everything right.

In hindsight, she really underestimated how utterly freaking difficult that would be.

Day 5: Right-Hook

Chat Noir used the twenty euros that Ladybug had reluctantly handed over to buy himself a plate of crepes and waffles, and after that the Egg Discourse™ had thankfully ended. They finished their brunch together while Alya started checking all of the likes and hits racking up on the video that she had posted of the two of them arguing rather vehemently about food of all things. Figures that they couldn’t dare to argue with each other about something serious but the moment you brought up irrelevant discourse about breakfast foods, they were both at each other’s necks and attracting the attention of an entire restaurant with their antics. Alya thought about telling them that they acted exactly like an old married couple who loved to bicker about the little things and didn’t sweat the big ones, but she figured it would sound odd considering they were trying to convince the world of the exact opposite.

The three of them ended up on top of an apartment building near the café with Alya leaning against the chimney and moderating all the comments that were steadily pouring onto the end of the video. She must have been at it for longer than she realized because at some point Ladybug and Chat Noir discarded their weapons next to her and started killing time in that way they usually did whenever people randomly caught footage of them on their patrols at night. They’d switched from a crunching competition to doing handstands on the edge of the roof to some light hand-to-hand practice by the time Alya was sure she’d gotten all of the inappropriate comments off.

“Sorry about this,” Alya told them as Chat Noir knocked Ladybug onto her back and declared himself the winner of their second round. “My friend Nino usually helps mod this stuff for me when I’m busy but he’s got a family thing right now and I don’t want to let the comments get too cluttered.”

“Take your time, we don’t have much to do today anyway,” Ladybug said, sounding slightly out of breath. She nodded at Chat Noir. “Again.”

“Don’t stay so flat footed by the way,” Chat Noir told her. “Stay bouncing on your toes and you can move quicker. When you’re ready.”

Ladybug lunged at him first while Chat Noir quickly blocked her punch, and Alya cleared her throat as she pulled up a few comments. “Alright. So the results of that little show during brunch are turning out to be interesting.”

“I can’t believe you actually uploaded all of that,” Chat Noir called over, ducking underneath Ladybug’s kick and coming up behind her.

“It was the closest thing to a fight I was going to get out of you two, of course I posted it. We’ve been at this for like two days, I’ve gotta take what I can get.”

Ladybug landed a kick in Chat Noir’s abdomen but he stepped back with the momentum of the blow and stayed steady on his feet. “Well, is the video helping?”

Alya sighed. “So a few things are happening. Good news is that there are actually a few people who are theorizing that your non-existent relationship is looking a little rocky.”

“Oh sweet!” Chat Noir grinned. “That’s good!”

“Alright. So. LadynoirXOXO229 said ‘if they’re fighting about something as silly as eggs I can only imagine what their really bad fights must look like. I’m worried.’ Frowny face, frowny face, sobbing emoji.”

Ladybug snorted. “Our really bad fights involve akumas flinging us halfway across the city.” She hissed when her arm collided with Chat’s steel-toed boots as she blocked one of his kicks. “If you can deal with that, you can deal with anything.”

“Uh, ChatNoirIsMySon said, ‘jesus I never expected them to get so uppity about something as simple as eggs. Are they okay?’”

Chat Noir paused for a moment and sighed forlornly. “No, unfortunately. I feel horribly betrayed.”

“Oh get over it,” Ladybug said with an eyeroll. “If you feel so betrayed why don’t you try knocking me over again?”

“So demanding! ”

“And then ItsCalledChatBug — um yeah, sure buddy, like I didn’t totally coin Ladynoir from like day one — they said ‘Ladybug looked about two seconds from punching Chat Noir in the face.’ You’ve got a few more comments that all read something like that so I’d say that the seed is planted.”

“Well that’s a good sign I g —!!” His sentence was cut off as Ladybug took advantage of his distraction and swiped his feet out from under him with her leg and left him sprawling on his back. He grunted when Ladybug playfully planted her foot in the middle of his chest and waved sweetly at him. Chat scowled at her and held his hand out so that she could help him up. “Stop looking so self-satisfied,” he muttered. “I’m still winning.”

“For now.”

���Now for the bad news,” Alya continued, ignoring their back and forth. “Which is what I was admittedly afraid of when I posted the thing. It kind of just encouraged people. Like a lot of people. Like they think you guys are such a cute and adorable couple and that this is proof of how close the two of you are.”

“Well I guess they’re not wrong ,” Ladybug reasoned. “At least not completely.”

“So HawkmothGetBent said , ‘this is literally how me and my boyfriend are all the time this is the single most adorable thing I’ve ever seen the two of them do.’ LBBeauty said ‘this is the greatest thing to ever happen to the Internet hands down everyone else go home.’ OhMyWhiskers said ‘I’d pay money to see the two of them do stuff like this on a daily basis. Relationship goals tbh.’ So essentially we took two steps forward and then took two steps backwards. Meaning we didn’t go anywhere. Although, I will say you two got me a ridiculous amount of followers this weekend so thank you very much for that.”

“Dude, who is OhMyWhiskers I want that username,” Chat Noir laughed.

Ladybug stopped for a moment, gently smacked his arm, and pointed to her eyes. “Focus before I accidentally punch you somewhere important.”

“Sorry, sorry. Come at me, I’m ready.”

Alya started laughing. “Oh man, okay, get this. Because I’m a little asshole, I pinned a poll at the top of the blog asking people what they thought about eggs. So far it’s 60% yay and 40% nay.”

“Ha!” Ladybug cheered as they kept on fighting. “What did I tell you?”

“You are not changing my mind, they’re still gross, and we are not reopening this discussion.”

Alya stuffed her phone in her jacket and pillowed her arms behind her head as she laid down flat on the roof. Out of the corner of her eyes she could still see that they were sparring but she decided to think out loud anyway. “I think we need to just screw it and do something dramatic. Like we’ve been doing things by the books this entire time. I think we just need something super crazy and out there you know? Just sucker punch everyone with the news.”

They were caught in a really intense moment of rapid blows and blocks, but when they briefly pushed away from each other to catch their breaths Ladybug answered, “How crazy are we talking?”

Alya shrugged and started fiddling with the ends of her jacket sleeves. “What if you both faked your deaths?”

Chat Noir wiped his forehead. “Then Paris would be doomed because Hawkmoth would have a field day.”

“Oh right, I forgot about that part,” Alya mumbled. “What if only Ladybug faked her death?”

“Then there would be no one to purify akumas and Chat would have to fight by himself.”

“Okay, so we kill Chat Noir.”

Chat Noir frowned. “I think we’ll run into a similar problem.”

“Fine!” she said, throwing up her arms. “Then I’ll fake my death.”

Ladybug snorted. “I don’t see how that’ll help us. Or you for that matter.”

“Well I don’t know what else to come up with,” Alya complained. “I’m totally out of ideas. I honestly didn’t mean to make you both uncomfortable. And I know how I can get with the fan theories and stuff and I need to remember that you guys are real people and I have to be careful about all that stuff. I get it. Trust me. So I thought I could like make up for it by helping you and fixing my mistake, but I’m hitting a block. And it doesn’t help that you two are literally impossible to work with! Always gotta make things complicated!”

Chat Noir laughed and walked over to gently pat her on the head. “I can’t tell if you’re mad at us or mad at yourself, but don’t worry about it. We know you weren’t trying to be mean about it. And you realized your mistakes. We’re not mad, we promise.”

“Not even about these rumors running around?”

Ladybug shrugged. “I mean, I won’t lie, I’d prefer if they weren’t out there. Like I said, it’s just….weird to have everyone wishing for you to get together with another guy when you’ve got a boyfriend you love very much. But we’re not going to hate you if it turns out we can’t squash them. We’ll just have to deal.”

Alya bit her lip. “I can still take those pictures down, you know. It’s a little late in the game, but at least it’ll help. Or at least delete the shippy caption. It’ll only take a second.”

“There’s still hope of this blowing over eventually though, right?” Ladybug asked.

Alya and Chat Noir laughed simultaneously. “Not likely, my Lady,” Chat Noir said regretfully. “Like I said. Our fans are really intense.”

Alya chewed on the nail of her thumb and kept her gaze up at the overcast sky. “Hey, I know we’re not like…. super close friends or anything. And you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but totally off the record: did this shipping stuff bother you before you started dating your partners? I know you kinda said it didn’t, but why?”

Chat Noir hummed and sat cross legged next to Alya’s head. “I mean, to be honest, we didn’t realize that we had an official fandom until recently. I mean, we’ve been following your blog for ages, but now it’s like the center for everything having to do with us. At first when we found out about it, we were kind of too surprised to really have an opinion. It wasn’t something we ever expected to happen to us.”

“Everyone loves you two,” Alya explained. “No one would bother with being this extra if they didn’t really care about you and what you do for us.”

Ladybug leaned against the chimney and stared down at Alya and Chat. “We know,” she smiled. “It’s just this whole superhero thing got sprung on us really unexpectedly. All we knew was that we had these powers and there were people who needed us. We do this because it’s necessary, because we’re the only people who can do what we do. We sort of didn’t think about everything else. Like the fanfare and the publicity and standing up for something bigger. So it took us a while to react.”

“And when you finally did?”

Chat Noir shrugged. “I mean, I don’t know we sort of just ignored it. People sometimes got really crazy with it when they asked personal questions or were inappropriate or something like that. Most of the time, though, it was just stuff on the Internet and gossip and it’s easy to just not take that stuff seriously. But it’s different when you have someone you really care about — someone that makes you happy and someone that knows you so well — and you’re hearing everyone just talk about how much they say you’re the perfect match for a completely different girl.”

“We care about each other so much,” Ladybug said. “Honestly. I can’t imagine not having Chat Noir around. We act the way we do because we’re important to each other, and he’s one of my closest friends. But it’s just not like that, you know? We’re both in relationships that make us so happy, so it’s just not gonna happen with the two of us. It’s weird having the Internet think otherwise.”

“I see what you’re saying, but I also understand why people think the way they do,” Alya said. “ I thought that until you told me you weren’t together. You just have this chemistry with each other. It’s not something you see all the time, you know? So it’s easy for people to assume it’s something romantic.”

Ladybug reached down and fiddled with the ends of Chat Noir’s hair. “We kind of have to have that chemistry.”

Alya frowned. “What do you mean?

“When you do what we do and have a partner doing it along with you, have to learn how to put your whole trust into that person,” Ladybug replied. “I wouldn’t be able to defeat akumas if I didn’t have total faith in Chat to keep me safe or distract an enemy or agree to a really last minute plan. We have to be close. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t be able to work as well as we do. And doing our job would be impossible.”

“So you guys got close really quickly because you had to?”

“Eh, yes and no,” Chat Noir decided. “Don’t get me wrong, we had to really get used to each other and spend a lot of time together at first once we realized this was our job now. But it also happened kind of naturally. Even in our first battle when we were strangers, we worked really well together. We don’t clash on the important stuff and that lets us work together without much tension. It’s almost too good to be true sometimes, but I’ve learned not to question it.”

Ladybug laughed when Chat Noir smiled happily and nuzzled against her hand. “The two of us lucked out. I couldn’t possibly ask for anyone better. And I guess maybe from the outside looking in it does come off a certain way to some people.”

“Plus it also helps that we are both very good looking. Especially me.”

Ladybug frowned and reached over to punch him in the shoulder, but he rolled to the side and hopped up on his feet before she could touch him. He winked and stuck his tongue out. “Ah, you gotta be quicker than that.”

“Oh square up, you loser. You’re just waiting for me to get a good hit in aren’t you?”

“It wouldn’t be a full day otherwise.”

“God,” Alya laughed. “If you’re this nauseating with each other I can only imagine you two with the people you’re dating. Chat’s girlfriend must get sick of you very quickly.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes. “Oh man, I can only imagine.”

“Excuse the both of you, I am a gentleman,” Chat said, sounding affronted. “I regale her with my love, affection, and quality puns on a daily basis just like every self respecting man ought to do. And I make her laugh. That’s important in a relationship.”

“You sure she’s not laughing out of pity?”

“You know what? Just for that? I’m not going to feel bad when I punch you. Let’s go.”

“Don’t test me. I’ll deck you in the face and then your girlfriend is gonna wonder why a little girl beat you up.”

“First of all rude. Second of all, everyone knows you’re a certified badass so stop acting humble and kick my ass already.”

Alya cupped her hands around her mouth. “You’re killing me with all of this banter, go get a room!” she laughed.

They both made silly faces at her and continued on with their sparring, and Alya was comfortable to enjoy the weather, watch the sky, and occasionally look over at the two of them taking advantage of each other’s company without the dramatics of an akuma getting involved. As exhausting as dealing with both of them was, Alya was in a way grateful for what little time she got to spend with them. Sure she’d snagged interviews with them before, but those had always been business first. This was just Ladybug and Chat Noir acting their age, being dorks, and taking advantage of an opportunity to have some fun. It was a charming look into their relationship that Alya only ever got to see literal snapshots of, and, all this dating-not dating drama aside, it made her realize how precious it seemed. These weren’t jobs they asked for, but they made do and gained each other out of the deal. It wasn’t until then that she felt bad for trying to publicly smear their relationship, even if it was fake and only for the sake of diffusing rumors that she started.

It wasn’t just that she was out of ideas. It was also that it wasn’t fair to make the world think that Ladybug and Chat Noir were anything other than what they were right now — two people who meant the world to each other even through the worst of times. Two people who shared something special.

She let out a huge sigh. Looks like she was back to square one — doing this the hard way. Buzz about their supposed relationship was going to be ridiculously difficult to kill and it was going to take forever . But editing her original post and killing the rumor on her blog was probably a good place to start with. After that, it was just squashing all of the dissents to the correction in the comments sections. Maybe she could get help. Alya would cover the Ladyblog, Nino would cover Facebook, Marinette would deal with Instagram, and Adrien would snoop around on Tumblr. Hell, maybe she could bribe Chloe to yell at people on Twitter. She was no doubt pissed to hear that Ladybug was dating Chat Noir instead of her and would probably enjoy dashing everyone’s hopes. There were no guarantees that any of it would actually help put a dent in things, but at least it was something.

God this was going to suck. Lesson learned. Marinette was going to be reminding her about this slip up for months.

Although, even as she was thinking this, her reporter instincts were bringing up one last question to niggle in the back of her mind as she kept watching the heroes. She wasn’t sure when she’d be able to speak with them this candidly again in the future and — off the record of course — there was just something she had to know for herself.

“Can I ask one more question?” she said.

“Sure,” Ladybug struggled out in between ducks and blows. “What’s up?”

“Did you have any feelings for each other before you both started seeing other people?”

Chat Noir froze and snapped his head towards Alya. “Wait, what??”

But he picked the wrong moment to get distracted because right when Chat Noir stopped, it was already too late for Ladybug to stop the right-hook she had aimed straight for his face. Instead of dodging, he felt the full force of her fist to his cheek and went sprawling back a couple of feet before landing on his butt and howling at the searing pain that was spreading all over the left side of his face.

“Oh my God!!!” Ladybug screamed. “I’m so sorry!! Oh no, oh no, I didn’t expect you to just stop, I’m so sorry.”

“Ah, Jesus,” Chat Noir said, working his sore jaw. “When you said you wanted to deck me in the face I thought you were kidding.”

Ladybug gently cupped his injured cheek and turned his head. “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Chat Noir laughed. “Nah, you’re good. Might just bruise a bit, that’s all. I deserved it for not paying attention.”

Ladybug bit her lip and pressed a quick apology kiss to his cheek. “I’m still sorry.”

“It’s fine, honest. Crap you hit hard though!”

Alya came over and winced at his cheek. “Dude, you’re gonna wanna ice that. She really clocked you good.”

“Yeah, my bad, I was, uh….trying to hear your question and I got distracted. What was it again?”

Alya bit her lip, opened her mouth, but decided against it. “Never mind. It’s honestly nothing, don’t worry about it. Besides, I’ve gotta get going anyways.” She pulled out her cell phone and checked the time. “My little sisters are going to be back from their sleepover soon and I need to look after them until Maman comes home.”

“Need help getting down?” Ladybug asked. “I could give you a lift back home if you want.”

“Don’t worry about it. If I biked all the way here just to try some eggs, I can bike home.”

Ladybug let Alya hang onto her yoyo while she gently lowered her down to the sidewalk. Chat Noir crawled over, huffing and whining in pain while holding his cheek, and called down to her while she unchained her bike. “What are we going to do about this whole dating rumors thing?”

Alya shrugged. “Eh, I’m all out of ideas at the moment. I’m gonna sleep on it and probably do some damage control on social media in the meantime so at least it feels like I’m doing something. You know where to find me if you’ve got a way to make this blow over quicker. I’ll do some thinking too.”

“We trust you,” Ladybug smiled. “And thanks for everything. Even though it really didn’t go the way we planned.”

“Oh, that’s an understatement,” she chuckled. Alya straddled her bike and saluted the two heroes. “Welp. It’s been a blast, you crazy kids. And pay better attention so pretty girls don’t beat the crap out of you, Chat. Okay?”

He rolled his eyes and gave her a thumbs up, still holding his face. “Yeah. Sure. Will do.”

Ladybug pouted. “You want some ice, kitty? I’ll run to the bakery across the street.”

Chat sniffled and nodded. “Yes please.”

Alya shook her head in amusement and pushed off from her bike waving over her shoulder as she dipped into the street and headed home. Yup. These two were definitely special, alright.

[thekindmagic]

"Sorry" and Promptio! :))))))))

Yes

I’m so, so glad you sent me this one?? Because wow, I really needed to address The Train Scene… (I have a funny feeling that may have been what you had in mind, here)

This is, um, a Gladio-style apology: it does not actually contain the word “sorry.” I think it still works, though…

“Prompto? Gladio still seems a bit on edge. I think perhaps we should delay our journey to Tenebrae and rest here. Preferably with him and Noctis in separate rooms.”“Phew! Glad you brought it up!”“Do you have a preference regarding which of us sleeps where?”“Are you kidding? You have to stick with Noct, especially right now. If he has more of those nightmares…”“I’ve no doubt he will.”“Yeah. And… I think you might be freaking the big guy out a little. I’ll room with him.”“Are you certain? I know he can be… overbearing.”“It’s fine, really. I know he’s just scared. I’ll try to calm him down.”“If anyone has a chance, I believe it’s you.”

—

“Hey,” Prompto says brightly, “nice to have a break from traveling and everything, right?”

Gladio scoffs. He searches his pocket for their motel key like it’s hiding on purpose and needs to be brought into line. “A break? Is that what you call missing the train?”

It totally is. Prompto and Ignis held the group up on purpose. “I guess not.”

Prompto bounces on the balls of his feet while Gladio opens the door to what’s got to be the worst motel room in Cartanica. There’s no telling what color the wallpaper was originally. The beds look like they belong in a museum. The air smells like dust and wet wood. Nobody even tried to put up boring paintings of lighthouses or anything: it wouldn’t have mattered, that’s how bad this room is.

Gladio flicks the light switch. Nothing happens. “Perfect,” he says through gritted teeth.

This whole ‘getting Gladio to chill out’ thing is looking harder by the minute.

Prompto squeezes past him in the doorway and runs over to try one of the bedside lamps. It works, thank god. He flips on every lamp he can find, until the room is lit like some weird noir movie. He turns back to Gladio and bows. “Atmosphere,” he says, grinning hopefully. “Do you feel like we should have cigars? I feel like we should have cigars.”

Gladio stares at him like he’s lost his mind. He shakes his head and throws his bag on the bed closest to the door.

The bed makes a bad sound.

Prompto is there in seconds. “Here, I think the other one’s okay,” he says frantically, reaching for Gladio’s bag, “we’ll just-”

“Shut up,” Gladio snaps.

Prompto freezes.

“The other one’s not okay,” Gladio says. He flings his arms out. “Why do all of you keep ignoring shit, pretending everything’s always okay? It’s not!”

“We know,” Prompto says quietly.

“Yeah? Then why don’t you act like it? Why do you keep smiling all the time?”

Prompto shrugs, feeling helpless. “Because… I’m trying to make it better?”

Gladio stares at him for a few seconds. Then he looks away and runs his hand over his hair. “That’s not on you.”

“It’s on all of us,” Prompto says. “Don’t you think?”

“It’s on His Highness to pull his head out of his ass and finally give a shit.”

…Okay, Prompto wants Gladio to feel better, but he’s gotta stick up for his best friend. “C'mon, that’s not fair. You know Noct. You know it’s killing him.”

After a second, Gladio sits down heavy on the creaky bed. He sighs. “Yeah. I know.” He drops his face into his hands.

Tentatively, Prompto sits down beside him.

Gladio laughs, deep and strained, like maybe he’s trying to hide that he’s really closer to crying. “It’s not-” he says. “It’s just- It’s not right. None of it.”

Ignis trying so hard to stay strong and help Noctis. Poor Lady Lunafreya, who Prompto will never get to thank.  Beautiful cities wrecked, first Insomnia and now Altissia. The four of them against the whole Empire.

That last one is especially tough for Prompto. It’s scary to be back in Niflheim. He can’t hope hard enough that nothing will happen, that his friends will never find out about his secret. It would be so easy right now for Gladio to decide they were on different sides - he’s supposed to protect Noctis, and Prompto’s throat closes up at the idea of Gladio trying to protect Noctis from him.

“Yeah,” Prompto murmurs. “It’s all wrong.” He leans in until their shoulders brush, needing to know that at least they’re okay right this second.

Gladio looks up at him. His eyes are red. He looks really tired. “Earlier, on the train. I pushed you.”

Prompto is surprised. He jumped in the middle of that himself, and anyway, he’s totally fine. “It’s not a big deal.”

Gladio shakes his head. “No, it is,” he says firmly. “I need to- Did I, uh. Did I hurt you?”

Prompto gets a weird feeling that if he said 'yes’ right now, Gladio might hate himself for the rest of his life. Prompto doesn’t want that at all.

…At the same time, the idea that Gladio’s been thinking about this is nice. Knowing that Gladio worries about him, even when he doesn’t have to? Even when there’s a thousand other things to think about? It kind of blows his mind, but in a good way.

He worries about Gladio, too.

“Nah,” Prompto shrugs. “I’m tougher than I look.”

Gladio shuts his eyes for a second and sighs, relieved. “Damn straight,” he says. He puts his arm around Prompto and mumbles, “just shoot me, next time.”

Prompto laughs. “No way! Where would I be without you, big guy?”

Gladio squeezes him closer. It’s kind of hard not to just turn sideways and like, snuggle the crap out of him, but Prompto doesn’t want to risk ruining the moment.

“You said the other bed was better?”

“Yeah,” Prompto says eagerly, “if you want to take that one-”

“How about we both take that one?”

Prompto was pretty sure Gladio thought he was an annoying bunk buddy. He knows he’s a restless sleeper and tends to octopus his way around people in the middle of the night, how could that not be annoying? But Gladio is smiling, and Prompto’s face is warm, and he is so not gonna argue this one.

“Yeah,” he says, trying not to sound way too enthusiastic. “Sounds good.”

Gladio laughs and leans his face into the top of Prompto’s head.

Maybe everything really will be okay.

At least it can be for tonight.